Monday, 23 May 2011

Bumper year for the Blue Tit

We spent Sunday afternoon checking our nest boxes, as its till too windy to do any mist-netting. The Tree Sparrows have already successfully fledged their first broods of which we ringed 27 chicks a week ago and are now on their second clutches. In the big wood the Blue Tits are doing very well as we ringed 74 chicks, brood size was 1 with 12, 1 with 11, 2 with 10 and several with 9. All the chicks were in good condition with no casualties found apart from the odd egg that hadn't hatched. We still have another 8 boxes containing 47 Blue and 25 Great Tit to ring later in the week, as these were too small to ring.With a possible 121 Blue Tits from this one site compared to only 47 last year I think we can call it a bumper year for the Blue Tit. (here at least anyway)